I tried handwriting my journal for 30 days and here's what I learned

Adapting how I journal to the medium

An open notebook with a handwritten list, next to a tablet displaying a calendar, on a wooden surface.

After I wrote on why I type my daily journal over handwriting, I thought I would challenge myself during March and handwrite my journal everyday instead of using my trusty digital word processor.

After 30 days, I felt slightly more comfortable with the notion of hand writing my journal. And while the long term lessons are probably yet to be determined, there is one key difference I’ve noticed between the two types of journaling.

Stream of consciousness vs deliberate thought journaling

One thing that became very clear to me early on was that I had to change how I wrote in my handwritten journal over my word processed ones: I needed to slow down.

My typed journaling is very much a stream of consciousness given my comfort with typing. It’s not that difficult for me to write the equivalent of a couple of pages of thoughts in the morning without much effort, and it’s fairly easy for me to get into a flow state of writing.

When handwriting I find it more frustrating. While over the course of 30 days I found myself getting more comfortable with handwriting much of that was due to forcing myself to slow down and be more deliberate with my thoughts, and in turn physically slow down my writing.

I see this as being a different kind of journaling: deliberate thoughts versus a stream of consciousness.

Forcing myself to take the time to write a deliberate thought, instead of trying to write as fast as I can to keep up with my mind, resulted in less words on a page for sure. However my main goal of journaling is not to write the most words, but to gather my thoughts and work through things so they aren’t cluttering my brain.

In the end, both methods achieve the same goal just in different ways.

Slowing down the mind through deliberate journaling has its benefits

My mind is very much prone to overthinking things; both a blessing in some scenarios and a curse. One of the other goals of journaling is to just get the clutter out of my head to clear up space for what matters.

Stream of consciousness journaling is one way to achieve this well. However, sometimes if the brain is already working overtime and a bit tired it might not help with actually calming your mind down, despite whatever you end up writing on the page.

More deliberate handwriting of a journal; taking your time and re-writing a word of a sentence just get the thought appropriately documented, can be more useful in calming a manic mind.

So which method am I using moving forward?

The truth is I’m not sure which way I’m going to go.

Using my word processor this morning to write my journal felt a little odd. I found myself wanting to get the tablet to handwrite.

However the other part of the equation is my desire to write more posts and articles about topics and items I enjoy. While I found myself enjoying the handwriting experience, I also found myself not sitting down to write as much outside of my journal time. As I did this morning with drafting this article, my flow sometimes involves moving between my journal file and article file and writing in both in the morning sessions. And I have no desire to handwrite these blog posts.

The other part is I don’t actually do anything yet with the journal notes, handwritten or typed. I back them up since they are all digital, but I have no plans to really use them once they are done. That might change with future technology possibly able to analyse our previous thoughts to get better insights for us to use, so a typed journal would be better for that use case.

In the end, I might try and keep up the handwriting practice for a little longer.

Men over 40: it's time to embrace the fanny pack!

Ignore the stigma, unburden your pockets

The Bellroy Venture bag on a table next to a notepad with the words 'It's Time' written

While the world has seemingly started to accept men carrying a man bag or shoulder slings, there’s still a bit of a perception around the classic fanny pack (or waist pack / bum bag if you prefer).

I know this because since late January I’ve been wearing a fanny pack daily…and I god damn love it.

While us men are generally lucky to have most of our clothes contain pockets to store items; with some of us carrying more throughout the day, it’s useful to have a bag with some small items with you to free the weight in your pockets.

As mentioned, some have taken to carrying man bags or slings for this purpose. If that works for you, awesome. However, while I’ve tried a few of these bags, none of them have ended up in my daily rotation until I started wearing a fanny pack.

Let me go over the benefits I’ve found over other bag types for my daily carry.

Comfort

While I’ve tried some very good shoulder bags and slings, I’ve never been comfortable with carrying something around my shoulder all day. Even with a lite bag and minimal items, there is a fatigue to carrying extra weight on your shoulder/s for a period of time.

Personally, using a fanny pack and having that weight around my waist is far more comfortable. Like having a slightly heavier belt on. In addition, I don’t have the movement restriction of having a bag strapped around my shoulder, chest or back.

Convenience

The Bellroy Venture bag mounted on my waist

Yes a shoulder bag could carry more things, but they are generally loose around your body and require you to find a place for the bag when you sit somewhere. Sling bags maybe slightly better for this as they are designed to be worn tightly on your chest or back, but you are often adjusting it back and forth depending on what your situation or needs are at any time.

My fanny pack stays mounted around my lap pretty much all day. It’s small enough that I can still sit comfortably with it on, and I can (mostly) access anything I need from the bag without needing to swing it around or take it off.

There’s occasional times where I will need to adjust or remove it temporarily; but far less often than any shoulder or sling bag with my usage.

Simplicity

Like with any bag, you can go overboard with this. However in general, fanny packs are limited in size and shape. Why is this a benefit?

First, it doesn’t tempt you to take too many items apart from items you may need. With larger shoulder bags, I found myself taking stuff I didn’t really need because the space was there; but then I’m carrying around more weight and making it slightly difficult to get to items I actually want.

Related to this is comfort; the more you carry, the more uncomfortable it is. Some sling bags are getting so big you can fit laptops in them. At that point even when tightened to your back, having that weight braced on a single shoulder is not as ergonomic and comfortable as just having a small backpack.

But Andrew, it doesn’t look very fashionable?

Well, some men can make fanny packs look fashionable. Chances are if you can’t make a fanny pack fashionable, a man bag or sling will look equally as unfashionable on you.

I’m definitely not one that makes this look good, but I’ve chosen to lean into it. Wear it proudly, try golf attire (flat caps and polo shirts).

Are you comfortable? Then be comfortable damnit. Besides you’re 40 and older now, why are you bothered by the opinions of others over your style or comfort.

Embrace the fanny pack!